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Summary: A great security/technology thriller...
Review: Since I wasn't able to sleep on my red-eye flight to Orlando, I was able to start (and finish) Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. A very enjoyable read, especially if you're into technology security and encryption. The storyline revolves around the National Security Agency (NSA) and their activities surrounding the monitoring of communication. They are able to break any encryption with the aid of a massive secret computer, and life is good. But when a code appears that can not be broken, all hell breaks loose. The author, a former employee of the NSA, is about to release the code to the highest bidder. The NSA has to stop this from happening so that they will not be locked out of all encrypted data. When the employee is murdered, it gets impossible to tell who is selling out who.Great pacing, believable storyline, and a very good read. If you want a nice techno-escape, this would be a great choice.
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Summary: James Patterson-esque
Review: This book is not bad. Some interesting ideas and twists. However, some concepts are unrealistic and left me saying, "come on...that wouldn't really happen". I did learn a little about US Intelligence, which was nice. That being said, I was really disappointed how close this book was to becoming a love story.
I think one would enjoy this book...just do not expect a masterpiece.
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Summary: Really forces you to suspend disbelief
Review: The book reads well, but it ends there. This novel is another example of authors writing in behaviors for the characters that stretches belief so much that you find yourself wanting to throw the book in the trash before you have to face any further dissapointment. Why is it so difficult to write a novel that contains antagonists and protagonists that at least act in a somewhat realistic manner.
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Summary: Disappointing...
Review: I liked The Da Vinci Code so much that I figured I would check out Dan Brown's past writing, but this book certainly doesn't live up to the author's latest. There are just too many problems with the plot (see other users reviews, who have detailed them nicely), and his grasp of cryptographic details is just horrible. I found myself wincing whenever he tried to describe anything remotely technological - not because of his writing ability, but rather due to his glaring misunderstandings in his subject. Rereading The Da Vinci code would be a better way to spend an afternoon instead of cracking this open.
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Summary: Da Vinci Code it ain't...
Review: Some time in 2003, Dan Brown became about as popular as J.K. Rowlings -- The Da Vince Code was so well received that a whole bunch of people went out and bought his earlier books, and now Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point are all bestsellers. Hate to admit it, but I'm one of those people who bought into the hype. (Da Vinci Code is his best work, haven't read Deception Point yet, Angels and Demons is pretty gosh-darn good if you can get past some problems in the treatment of physics and ignore the way a simple trick that Microsoft Word Art could probably do is treated as a miracle.) Having read some of Brown's other work, this one just isn't up to the same standards. The suspense isn't as high, the characters aren't as interesting and the research isn't nearly as good. A fact checker who knows even the barest basics of security in general and electronic security specifically could have told Brown that his version of the NSA is less secure than the average Wal-Mart, that encryption just plain doesn't work the way he thinks it does, that in the age of commercial satellite imaging the government wouldn't put its most sensitive assets under a glass dome, that such a glass dome wouldn't be atomic-bomb-proof, that changing a file on a web site doesn't help much when thousands of people have already downloaded it, etc., etc... If you can suspend disbelief and get past all that, it's probably a pretty good suspense thriller, but the errors in the details distract me from enjoying the book.
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Summary: Canned techno-thriller
Review: I found this on my plane seat and plowed through the first 50 pages. The writing style reminds me of the dreck I cranked out for my high school creative writing assignments minutes before it was due. The crypto is wrong. If the NSA's computer could break a code in 10 minutes, wouldn't extending the key by 8 bits cause it to take 42 hours? And it wouldn't work on triple DES. If you know nothing about crypto, then you can hold your nose and waste a few hours of your life reading this book.
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Summary: Fun, But Makes Little Sense
Review: Digital Fortress concerns the wild world of breaking secret codes and the way the NSA handles them and a new threat named Digital Fortress. The action is fast and hard. This is another 24-hour story (like Deception Point and Angels & Demons) and follows a similar formula. It is fun to read and a real page turner, but there are so many flaws that a reader may have their enjoyment derailed. Lets look at a few of the flaws. First, apparently in the minds of intelligent people, the NSA is just or rumor or they have never heard of it at all. Not very realistic. If you have a super computer and you continually deny its very existence, you should probably not put it under a big glass dome in a major city (the one in the book is under such a dome; clear enough to see the stars at night). If a program is available for download on the Internet and you change it, it does not change the copies that people have already downloaded. There is a secure database separate from the Internet at the beginning of the book, but later it is described as fully connected and under siege from hackers just waiting to get into a system none of them knows exists. Put a bunch of very intelligent people together who can handle just about every problem, but at the end of the book start calling up wild goose theories and stats instead of the standard and obvious (which should have been their first choice). Have a bunch of people whose job is breaking codes and have them disbelieve that there is a code in front of them. There are also plenty of "historical" facts that need to be taken with a grain of salt as they reflect popular opinion of history and not what actually happened. Most of these problems will become evident and contextual if you read, or have read, the book. Still, as I said earlier, it is a fun and fast book. However, if you have read other Dan Brown books you will probably be able to figure out a lot as it follows the same formula.
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Summary: Page-Turner
Review: I really enjoyed this novel, though I felt it may have been "dumbed-down" a bit much. The plot twists (though some predictable) definitely keep the reader interested.
Rating: 
Summary: Digital Fortress
Review: Unlike some of the other reviews I think Dan Brown has a good book here. I believe there may be people out there that just don't understand the book, maybe over their heads. Its a book that is well worth reading. Remember this is a story not what really happens in the real world, just sit back by the fireplace and read and let you mind take you where no man has gone before. Larry Hobson - Author- " The Day Of The Rose"
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Summary: Good time killer, but not much more than that
Review: Dan Brown scored big time with "The Da Vinci Code", which was well done. The exhaust of a huge success like DVC is that the rest of the books that went nowhere come out of the woodwork and into the mainstream. Mr. Brown must have spent a lot of time in his youth figuring out crosswords, WHATZITS, word search, trivia, etc... As all of his characters thus far (may be unfair to say, as I have only read this book and DVC) have been 'de-coder fanatics.' Digital Fortress is no exception. Once you get passed the implausibility of the technical aspects of the story you can focus on the plot, which isn't bad. Though I would be remiss if I didn't say the plot is far less complicated than the puzzles within the story. I literally figured out the plot 1/3 through. Therfore I must label "Digital Fortress" predictable, but readable. A decent effort.
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